Half Japanese - Greatest Hits

Without doubt, Greatest Hits offers much more than any curiosity seeker needs in order to grasp both the charms and the terrors of the band's extended plod through post-Velvets garage punk. Chronological order, however, might have made listening to this grand and unruly compilation a little easier by keeping the formless yelling and screeching of the 1980 triple-album debut 1/2 Gentlemen/Not Beasts ("No More Beatlemania," "Her Parents Came Home") separated from the more melodic, Moe Tucker-like garage rock of 1988's pinnacle of accessibility, Charmed Life ("1,000,000 Kisses," "Red Dress"). Then again, Fair's child-like squeal and clangings are most moving in a middle-period song like "Ball and Chain," which mixes both styles and makes tuneful music out some of the most painfully desperate whine-cry shrills ever put to record. --Roni Sarig